childhood

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The period of a person's life when they are a child.

   She spent her childhood in a small village by the sea.

2. 2
   noun

   The early stage in the development of something.

   At that time, the technology was still in its childhood.

From Middle English childhode, childhod, from Old English ċildhād (“childhood”). By surface analysis, child + -hood. Compare dialectal Dutch kindheid (“childishness”), German Low German Kinnerheid (“childhood”), and German Kindheit (“childhood”).

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